Neeraj Chopra’s return to Tokyo and his defence of the World Championship title may not have gone to plan. But for a former member of his team, it was both: a triumphant return to the Japanese capital and another gold medal at the Worlds.
Dr Klaus Bartonietz, a German biomechanics expert, was in Chopra’s corner when the Indian became the first Indian to win a track-and-field gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. At the same venue on Thursday, another athlete guided by Bartonietz finished at the top of the podium – Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott.
Walcott won the gold medal in an intense final where several top names – including Chopra, Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem and Germany’s Julian Weber – finished below expectations. And he was quick to point out the key reason for his return to the top of the podium: getting Bartonietz on board as his coach.
#WorldAthleticsChamps #Tokyo2025
Dr Klaus Bartonietz.
Gold in Budapest with Neeraj Chopra.
Gold in Tokyo with Keshorn Walcott. pic.twitter.com/lMEbNlhvTk— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) September 18, 2025
Walcott called it his ‘best decision’ as he won his first major title since the gold at the London Olympics in 2012. “Maybe some changes I made last year paid off,” Walcott told the World Athletics. “To change my coach was the best decision I have made recently.”
Chopra and Bartonietz mutually ended their five-year partnership in November 2024. During this period, the duo won every title possible – the Olympic gold, the World Championship gold and the Diamond League title. Chopra went on to team up with his childhood hero, javelin legend Jan Zelezny. And it was reported that the German was going to ‘retire’ from coaching, citing his age. At the time, Bartonietz was 75.
According to the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, ‘Walcott and Bartonietz began working together virtually in October 2024’. The report added that initially, they were communicating through video calls and shared training data.
The duo met in person for the first time only in May this year, two weeks before the Doha Diamond League. Bartonietz was spotted sitting in the stands, and he watched his former student Chopra cross the 90m-mark for the first time that evening.
Walcott then relocated to Germany, where he trained at a facility near Bartonietz’s home, the Newsday report added. The newly-crowned world champion said in June that initially, he ‘did not know what to expect with the change of coach’.
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“Going into Doha, it was a bit unpredictable for me because I didn’t know what to expect with the change of coach. His background is biomechanics, so his approach to training is completely different from what I’ve experienced in the past couple of years. It’s more quality-focused — short and to the point,” Walcott told the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
Walcott added his training routine underwent a ‘radical shift’, with more focus on ‘precision and efficiency’. “My throw sessions are now averaged under 20 javelin throws. It took a bit of getting used to, especially mentally, because you have to trust the coach and trust your mind,” he said.
It was only after the Doha Diamond League that Walcott ‘fully committed’ to his new trainer’s system. “When I began to give him 100 per cent was after Doha, when I realised I could get results. Now that I’ve given him full trust, I think we see a lot of potential moving forward,” he had said in June.
That ‘potential’ was for all to see on Thursday, when Walcott produced a season-best throw of 88.16m to win the gold medal, ahead of Grenada’s Anderson Peters (87.38m) and the USA’s Curtis Thomson (86.67m).
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Chopra finished eighth with a best throw of 84.03m. It was for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics that the world number 2 finished outside the top two at an international competition, and the first time since September 2018 that he finished outside the top three at any event.
Sachin Yadav, the second Indian in the final, finished a highly credible fourth with a personal-best effort of 86.27m.
